Malabar cleans up act as northern beaches sink

Kirsty Needham

Swimming at Malabar, once Sydney's most maligned beach, is now as safe as swimming at Dee Why.

The Sun-Herald has obtained the annual Beachwatch report on water quality ahead of its weekend release. It shows Malabar has shaken off its longstanding reputation for contamination and jumped into the ranks of Sydney's ''good'' beaches.

But Dee Why and five other popular northern Sydney beaches - Mona Vale, Bilgola, Bungan, South Curl Curl and Shelley Beach - have all been downgraded from the top ''very good'' category.

Boat Harbour near Cronulla on Friday. Photo: James Alcock

Just eight Sydney beaches now rank among NSW's cleanest, or ''very good'' - safe for swimming in all conditions - compared with 15 last year.

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With NSW beaches officially opening this week, the 2013 State of the Beaches report shows the best places to swim in Sydney for excellent water quality are Palm Beach, Whale Beach and Avalon in the north; the harbour's Nielsen Park; Maroubra in the east; and Greenhills and Jibbon beaches in the south.

''This year, Malabar beach was graded as good for the first time since Beachwatch records began, following a $3 million stormwater diversion project jointly funded by Sydney Water, Randwick Council and the NSW Environment Trust,'' said state Environment Minister Robyn Parker.

Some of Sydney's most popular beaches are susceptible to stormwater pollution. Photo: James Alcock

Boat Harbour, the beach closest to Cronulla's wastewater treatment plant, was rated ''poor'' for the first time. Faecal pollution from 27 unauthorised on-site sewer systems on the private land behind the beach was blamed. And wet weather has caused Sydney Water to bypass its full treatment process and let partially treated water into the ocean, the report shows.

Overall, 96 per cent of NSW ocean beaches were rated as good or very good, a slight drop from 97 per cent the previous year.

The northern Sydney beaches downgraded from ''very good'' to ''good'' were affected by heavy rainfall and increased stormwater. Beachwatch recommends avoiding these beaches after heavy rain.

State of the beaches.

Sydney Water is trying to reduce the number of wet weather sewage overflows reaching the beaches between Narrabeen and Manly by building an 18 million-litre storage tank in Brookvale this year.

Sewage overflows, sewer chokes and stormwater were the probable causes of bacterial contamination washing onto Dee Why beach. A Warringah Council spokeswoman said she was surprised by the result.

A spokesman for Ms Parker said: ''Beaches graded as good are suitable for swimming for most of the time, and are still up there among the best in the world for a city the size of Sydney.''

Wet weather over the past four years, including the fifth wettest summer on record in 2010-11, affected the water quality, particularly on estuarine beaches, the report says.

Sydney's most popular city beaches - Bondi, Tamarama, Bronte and Coogee - are susceptible to pollution from stormwater, and are not recommended for swimming a day after 5 millimetres of rain.

North coast swimming spots were the most affected by heavy rainfall. The percentage of Ballina swimming spots ranked good or very good fell from 83 per cent to 60 per cent as new sites were included. Port Stephens fell from 100 per cent to 82 per cent as estuarine beaches were contaminated after flooding. On the central coast, Lake Macquarie beaches fell from 85 per cent to 75 per cent.

Ms Parker said there were good results for Sydney Harbour swimming spots, with 18 graded as good and Nielsen Park as very good.

Daily pollution forecasts are available from the Beachwatch twitter feed, and can also be accessed at environment.nsw.gov.au/beach

Correction: The graphic in the original version of this story reversed the locations of Greenhills and Boat Harbour.

1 comment so far

Why should the sewerage system overflow during storms? Illegal stormwater connections into the sewerage system can be the only reason. Sounds like there could be lots of prosecutions if the inspectors did their jobs. Are there enough inspectors? Not good enough Sydney Water.